Apparatus for grooving piston rings and the like



Nov. 151927. 1,649,695

G. H. HIGGINS APPARATUS FOR GROOVING PISTON RINGS AND THE LIKE Original Filed March 25. 1921 6 S heets $heet 1 war 129014 Ki By z k x Nov. 15,1921, 1,649,695 G. H. HIGGINS APPARATUS FOR GROOVING PISTON RINGS AND THE LIKE 0r a Filed March 25- 1' 6 $1 1ee1b s S heet 2 Nov. 15, 1927. 1,649,695

e. H. mssms APPARATUS FOR GROOVING PISTON RINGS AND THE LIKE Original Filed March 25. 1921 6 Shae t s S heet 3 Nov. 15, 1927. 1,649,695

- G. H. HIGGINS APPARATUS FOR GROOVING PISTON RINGS AND THE LIKE Original Filed Ma ah 25. 1921 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 Nov. 15, 1927.

APPARATUS FOR GROOVING PISTON RINGS AND THE LIKE 1,649,695 a. H. HIGGINS Original Filed March 25. 1921 JQ'JO,

Nov. 15, 1927. 1,649,695 G. H. HIGGINS APPARATUS FOR GROOVING PISTON RINGS AND THE LIKE Original Filed March 25. 1921 6 Sheej: s Sheet 6 Patented Nov. 15, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE -H. HIGGINS, F ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO BURID HIGH COMPRES- SION RING COMPANY, OF ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, A CORZPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

' .APIARATUS FOR GBOOVING PISTON RINGS AND THE LIKE Original application filed March 25, 1921, Serial No. 455,690, Patent No. 1,555,853, dated October 6, 1925.

Divided and this application filed April. 7, 1924. Serial No. 704,601. i t

ring or the like.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide apparatus for peripherally grooving piston rings to a high degree of accuracy and precision as regards dimensions and location ofeach groove and to at- 'tain this result most expeditiously, thereby promoting economy in production of these articles.

\ In furtherance of the foregoing, -I havedevised -a novel method of operation and novel apparatus whereby this method may.

be utilized. The method disclosed herein is the subject matter of my application Serial Number 455.690. filed March25, 1921, which eventuated in Patent 1.555 .S53g0n October 6, 1925, of which the presentv application is a division. 1 In illustrating the principles of my invention I employ a well known type of grinding machine characterized by a reciprocating. carriage. carrying live and dead centers between which the work is supported, and a grinding'w heel carriage adjustable in a plane transverse to the feed of the work carriag'e. I have proposed to peripherally groove-the grinding wheel by means of a suitable tool carried by the work carriage and adapted to be accurately posi; tioned by means of agage for cutting a predetermined wheel. -An arbor carrying a stack of piston rings, which have been previouslyground to final diameter is mounted between the centers. The work carriage will nowbe set in predetermined relation to the grinding wheel as determined by a ring locating gage,

profileoin the periphery'of said in which position a series of rings at one.

posed midway between its sides, is of consid- 5 erable importance and requires a high degree of accuracy inthe devices employed for this purpose. Furthermore, in view of variations in the widths of different batches of piston rings, special attention must be directed to difierent-positioning of the rings with respect to the grinding wheel in order that no discrepancy shall occur, which might by the successive positioning of the additional series, be multiplied so that when the last series-is ground, the grooyes would'b out of center on the respective rings. My invention also contemplates the grooving of piston .rings or similar objects 210- cording to amethod' based on astandard of dimension taken from the particular size of a ring to be ground. The. given width of the ring forms the standard. In the event that there is a; variance of one or more- L thousandths of an inch above or below this mean dimension, the rings are classed accordingly. lily novel method. provides for effecting accurate alignment of the rings of i any one of said classes with a grinding wheel so, that the grooves may be expeditiously a ground to a high degree of precision con-' L sidering the nature of the work. i While the foregoing touches briefly on the novel method and apparatus, itshould be] understood that I have contemplated fur-v l ther objects as regards certain phases of the invention which can be better understood from the following-description.

Referring to the drawings,- r Figure 1 is a plan,view. ofa. grinding machine embodying my invention;-

Fig. 2, a front view of the machine with the carriage set in position for profiling the grinding wheel; s

Fig. 3,.a similar view with the arriage in position for. grin ding the first series of rings; Figs. 4 and 5, perspective views of a pisston ring before and after grinding;

section, .anism; Figs. 7, 8 and 9, detail sectional views taken on the lines 7-7, 8-8 and 99,, respectively, of Fig. 6;.

Fig. 10, an enlarged front view locating gagemechanism;

Fig. 11, a sectional view taken on the line 11-11 of: Fig. 10;

of the rin .Fig. 6, an enlarged front-view partly in of the wheel profiling gage m h.

. means of apparatus Fig. 12, a detail view of a modified form of ring locating gage;

Fig. 13, a section talren on the line 13-13 of Fig. 12;

Fig. 14, a detail cross section takensubstantially on the line 1414 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 15, a detail sectional view taken on the line 15-15 of Fig. 14;

Fig. 16, a top view of the parts shown in Fig. 15;

Fig. 17, a detail view of the diamond tool in cutting relation tothe grinding wheel; and

Fig. 18, a detail View taken substantially on the line 1818 of Fig. 2.

In illustrating my novel method and the apparatus forming the subject matter of the present invention whereby the method is performed, I employ in part a grinding machine of ordinary and .well known construction; hence I have deemed it necessary to illustrate only such parts of the machine as are essential for an understanding of the present invention. The well known parts comprise a bed 19, a carriage 21 reciprocable thereon, a head stock 22 and a tail stock 23 mounted on the work carriage, and equipped with live and dead centers 24 and respectively, and a grinding wheel spindle 26 mounted on a carriage 27', which in turn is mounted on the bed 19 to move crosswise, that is, transverse to the axis of the work centers. Hand wheels 28 and 29 at the front of the machine are connected with the car riages 21 and 27 respectively by mechanism, not shown, for feeding the former lengthwise on the bedmand the latter crosswise. The spindle in the head stock 22 may be driven by any suitable means such as a belt 31, and the grinding wheel spindle 26 by a belt 32.

The piston rings to be grooved are stacked between collars 33 on an arbor 34 which is adapted to be supported upon and between the centers 24 and 25, and is rapidly re volved by reason of a suitable connection between the arbor and a face plate on the drivingspiudle. Figs. 4 and 5 show a ring 35 beforeand after it is grooved. It will be noted that" this particular ring has a step joint 36, and that the groove 37 is formed in the peripheral surface midway between the sides 38. The form-of joint is of no importance as my invention relates to the grooving of any piston ring and in fact, to the grooving of any article or articles by been ground to final diameter.

- Piston" rings are made in different sizes, consequently sion between the sides 38, varies, Inasmuch as it is desired that the groove 37 shall be in predetermined relation to the sides 38. of the ring, and since the rings vary in width, it is necessary that a special grinding wheel herein disclosed. It isassumed that the rings on the arbor 34 have the width, that is, the din1enbe employed for grinding the rings of each size. I have therefore, provided means for cutting the periphery of a grinding wheel.

39 to a predetermined profile, whereby a series of rings may be accurately grooved in a single operation. This means comprises a tool 41 adjustably secured to the tail stock 23 and carrying a diamond point 42, or any suitable cutting point shaped for forming alternate grooves 43 and cutting or grooving ridges or ribs 44 in the peripheral surface of the grinding wheel. These grooves and ribs cut the grooves in the piston rings and are formed by successively feeding the grinding wheel into the tool at different positions of the latter, controlled by a wheel profile gage mechanism, shown in detail in Figs. 6 to 9, inclusive. In these figures it will be observed that a pattern plate 45 secured by bolts 46 to the work carriage 21 and adjustable lengthwise on said carriage, is shaped to provide a. serrated surface, the notches 47 of which are equally spaced apart and are of such dimension as to produce the desired profile on the grinding wheel for grooving piston rings of a given size. A detent 48 carried by a suitable bracket 4.) adjustably secured to the bed 19, is shaped to tightly fit one of the notches 4-7 and is adapted vto be moved by av spring 51 into such notch and to be withdrawn by means of a knob 52. Suitable means, such as a block 53, may be employed for holding the detent 48 in an inoperative position. By means of the foregoing construction, the grinding wheel may be very accurately profiled, it being obvious that this is done by positioning the diamond tool in alignment wit-h the grinding wheel at one edge thereof, as for example at the left hand edge, viewing Fig. 2, in which position any one of the first few notches 47 at the right hand end of the gage plate 45, as shown in Fig. 6, would be engaged by the detent 48,- then feeding the grinding wheel into the cutting tool forming a groove 43; then retracting the grinding wheel and detent 48 and feeding the carriage 21 to the right a distance regulated by location of the detent in the next succeeding notch 47; then cutting a groove in the grinding wheel as determined by this notch; and repeating this operation until the grinding wheel has been grooved throughout its length.

I have now provided a ring-locating gage mechanism, whereby each of a plurality of series of rings on the arbor may be successively positioned in alignment with the grinding wheel with such degree of accuracy and precision as to uniformly groove the rings. This mechanism, shown best in F igs. 10 and 11 comprises in the present example, aseries of collars 54 to 58 inclusive, supported on a shaft 59, in turn supported bv brackets 61 adjustably secured to the worlr retracted by a hand' lever 66.

carriage 21. By means of washers 62, the adjoining collars are spaced apart a uniform distance forming grooves in which a detent 63 is adapted to engage. This detent carried by a bracket 64 adjustablysecured to the bed 19, is constantly urged into operative position by a spring 65 and adapted to be Vhen the work carriage is positioned as shown in Figs. 1, 3 and 10 with the detent 63 located in the groove between the blocks 54 and 55, the

rings at the extreme left hand end of the ar-- bor will be located in working alignment with the rinding wheel, so that when the latter is ed into the rings 'the ribs 44 of the wheel will grind grooves midway between the sides of the ring, as shown plainly in Fig. 15. In this regard it will be noted that the ring locating gage mechanism bears no a definite relation to the wheel profiling gage mechanism and to the grinding wheel in order that the rings on the arbor shall properly register with the profile on the grinding wheel. When now the rings of the first so ries have-been ground to the proper depth, the lever. 66 will bedepressed, permitting the workcarriage to be fed to the machine by means of the hand wheel 28 until the detent 63 engages in the next succeeding 30 groove. In. this position a new series of rings will be located in proper alignment Uwith the grinding wheel and may be ground thereby. This operation will be repeated until all of the rings have been ground. It

85 will be observed that in order to insure unitormity of the location of the grooves in the respectiire rings, it is necessary that the rings shall be 015 uniform width and that this width shall constitute a standard of dimension upon which the dimensions of both the wheel profiling gage mechanism and the ring locating .gage mechanism are based. In the event that the rings are one or more thoiisandths of an inch above or -below this standard, it will be; seen that an appreciable discrepancy will resultby the time this differenc e has been multiplied throughout the several series of rings. As a consequence, while the grooves inthe first series of rings might be properly located, those in .the last series would be to a greater or. less degree out of center on their respectiverings. In or der to avoid such discrepancy, each batch of rings is gaged and suitably" labeled as mean, above and below, or words to this effect, or the exact 'dimenslons, such for i example as-.187, .18725' and .18675. Three ali 5 It will, of course, be obvious that the gage sets of ring locating gage collars or blocks are, therefore, provided, each for rings of 00 one of these classes. In each set, there will be such diflerence in the length of the re spective collars or blocks as to secure the proper positioning of the rings of its class in gnment with the grinding wheel profile.

vided for rotatably adjusting the blocksasa unit to present new gage surfaces. In the present case, one of the end blocks as 54cis provided with a series of circumferentially spaced holes 67, in any one of which a locking pin-68 is adapted to be engaged. It will be obvious that in the present case eight adjustments are provided, thereby rincreasing the life of'the gage blocks that many times. In Figs. 1:2 and 13, I have shown a modified form of ring locating gage block 69, which is fluted, providing gage portions 71-, 72 and 7 3 and whichhas trunnion ends 74:, adapted to be supported in the brackets 61. Each of these gage portions is grooved atlongitudinally spaced points somewhat similar to the location of the grooves defined by the collars 54: to 58 inclusive. However, in this instance the spacing between each set of grooves is different, for example that in the portion 71 is for the mean dimension as .187; that in 72 for the undersize as :18675; and in 73 for the oversize as .18725.

From the foregoing it will be apparent rings and similar objects consists, preferably but not necessarily, imclassifying the rings supposed to be ofa given width, into a plu-- rality of classes according to variances in actual width, each class comprising rings within given dimensional tolerance, taking the mean width of the rings of any class as a standard dimension for such class, mounting plural series of rings of the selected class on a rotary supporting means such as an arbor, positioning the firstseries of r ngs at one end of the arbor in predetermined alignment with a groove-forming tool theprofile of which will cut a groove'in'each ring in said first series in predetermined or grinding grooves 'insaid first series by relatlve feed movement between the arbor and tool, successively positioning the difl'erent remaining series in predetermined alignment with said tool andsuccessively cutting said series. the respective positioning of the plural series in predetermined alignment with the grooving tool being effected by 00- operating fixed and movable gage elements,

one of which comprises a plurality of ele ments one for each series of rings on the arbor, said plurality of -elements being spaced in accordance with the mean width or said standard dimension of the rings of the selected class It will be observed that the same grinding wheel or Other groovmg tool is, preferably but not necessarily, used ,for grooving the rings comprising the different classes of a given size, such as the different classes'above specified, without appreciably impairing the desiredaccuracy in location of the grooves on the rings of such classes. In practice I employ but a slngle grinding wheel for each of the three classes of rings supposedly of a given SIZE, the positioning of the first series of rings of each class in alignmgnt with the grinding wheel serving to locate the grinding wheel or tool in predetermined alignment with such rings, and each sucessive setting or positioning serving to respectively, correspondingly align the different series. It will be further observed that the desired predetermined alignment could in practice of the invention be effected by movement of the arbor or other support, instead of the cutting tool.

. It should be understood that for each size of ring, including in this instance three classes, a separate gage plate 45 and three sets of gage blocks as shown in Fig. 10, or a single gage block as shown in Fig. 13,

It is believed that the foregoing conveys a clear understanding of the principles and objects prefaced above',and while I have il lustrated and described but a single embodiment of my novel method and apparatus,

7 with the exception of the modification of the ring locatmg gage, it should be understood that considerable change might, be madein the apparatus employed for practising this method, and also in the several operations for obtaining the desired result without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims. I claim: 1. In a ring grooving machine of the"character described, the combination of a grinding wheel having the periphery thereof provided with a series of uniformly spaced ribs and grooves spaced according to a standard dimension, cans for feeding an arbor carrying a plural series of rings in step by step movements to position new series of rings one by one in alignment with the grinding wheel, and means for accurately locating each series of rings in ,predeterminedalignment with the grinding wheel at each step, the steps each being'equal to a space equivalent to the distance between I a number of grooves on said wheel. 2 Apparatus for peripherally grooving iston rings comprising, in combination, a iied, a work carriage movable lengthwise on the bed, a rotary arbor mounted on said carriage and adapted to carry a plural series of piston rings, a cross-feed carriage mounted on the bed, arotary grinding wheel mounted on said cross-feed carriage on an axis parallel with the arbor and having a profile comprising alternate grooves and ribs spaced apart in predetermined relation to the width of the rings on the arbor, means operative between the bed and work carriage for locating each series of rings in succession in predetermind alignment with the grinding wheel, said means including plural sets of locating faces spaced apart and a locating member adapted to engage each face of any set for determinin the location of the re spective series of rings, said means and lofor bringing any set of locating faces into operative position.

In a machine for the pur ose described, a bed, a work carriage mova le lengthwise on the bed, a cross feed carriage mounted on' the bed, a rotar grinding wheel mounted on said cross feed carriage on an axis parallel to the direction of movement-of the work carriage, said grinding'wheel having alternate grooves and ribs on the periphery thereof arranged to be spaced apart in predetermined relation to the width of piston rings to be operated upon by thewheel, means operative'between the bed and the work car- 'riage for locating the latter in different positions in steps each equivalent to the distance between adjacent grooves on said wheel, andanother means operative between the 'bedand work carriage for locating the latter. in different positions in steps each equivalent to. the distance between a number of grooves on said wheel.

v 4. In a piston ring grooving machine, the

combination of a head having a plurality 0f spaced cutters spaced according to a standard dimension, anarbor for supporting and rotating a plural series of rings for operation thereon by said cutters, and means for accurately; locating the cutters with successive series of'rings in successive steps, the steps each being equivalent to the distance between a number of cutters whereby to groove all of the rings in a number of steps, step.

GEORGE H. HIGGINS.

a series of rings being grooved at each I 

